Big 12 Championship Preview
Heading into the Big 12 Championship game tonight, I don't think anyone needs to ask what's at stake anymore. Not only have the Jayhawks made it this far, they also get to face their in-state rival for a third time. It's time to win this thing. Before I get into some things to watch for tonight, let me congratulate Kansas State for beating a very good Baylor last night. Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente led the way scoring 50 points between them, Dominique Sutton also played well for the Cats, scoring 14 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. A similar performance from those three would be a bad thing tonight.
Background
In case it wasn't already obvious, it is now written in stone that the best two teams in the Big 12 come from the state of Kansas. These two teams finished conference play first and second and now get to battle it out for the other championship awarded by the Big 12. So far this season, Kansas squeaked out an overtime win in Manhattan in their first meeting and pulled away in the second half of their game in Lawrence. In order to go 3-0 against them this year, the Jayhawks are going to need to play better in the 1st half than they have in the last two games.
If you want a full preview of Kansas State, go here and here.
Keys to the Game
- Do your best to avoid fouling. Kansas State lives at the free throw line, leading the Big 12 in free throw rate this year. They don't shoot for a great percentage but make up for it in quantity. Half of Denis Clemente's game is attacking the basket and hoping for a foul, don't help him here. In the last game, Kansas State also attacked our bigs when they hedged on ball screens. The big guys must avoid picking up cheap fouls outside the 3 point line.
- Kansas State will foul and foul a bunch. K-State's opponents shot 438 free throws this year, KU's opponents shot 308. Not only do they get to the line a ton, they put their opponent on the line. Make your free throws when you get them and take advantage of the reserves when their starters get in foul trouble.
- Clean up the glass. Kansas State grabbed 40% of their misses this year, that adds up to a lot of easy baskets. Keep the second chance baskets low and Kansas will be in good shape. (Perfect set up for Markieff to take home Most Outstanding Player)
- Take care of the ball. As shown in the link above, K-State is a great defensive team when they turn you over. When they don't turn you over, they fall back to middle of the pack. Hopefully the butterfingers we saw yesterday is cured before tonight because if Kansas turns the ball over like that, we'll see an ass-kicking.
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An epic battle
This is going to be an epic battle, just an amazing basketball game. Of the three scenarios (KSU blowout win, KU blowout win, close game in a toss-up), I think that we’re either going to see a close game or a KU blowout win.
I’ve seen a lot of trash talk about how mediocre the Big XII is compared to the SEC online. Apparently, because Mississippi State beat KSU and Tennessee beat KU, the SEC is a better league. Obviously some flaws in that logic, but I found it interesting, especially considering only 4 teams from the SEC are likely to make the tournament.
On another note, after watching a lot of basketball Thursday and Friday, the team that worries me the most in the tournament is Georgetown. Ohio State is good, West Virginia is good, Syracuse and Kentucky are who they are, but Georgetown has guards who can shoot, Wright is incredibly quick and can drive to the hoop, and Monroe is just plain scary.
quick recruiting note- if any of you guys havn’t seen josh selby play check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEEGg_qIFvY the kid is crazy good
whew...that kid is good...
Can you imagine?
Selby → E. Johnson
Taylor → CJ Henry → Reed
Morningstar → McMorris
McMorris → MkMorris
Robinson → Withey
Just sick. And if X decides to stay to play with CJ another year? Good God.
Regardless of whether X and CJ stay,
we’re going to be sick good next year.
PG: EJ & T2
SG: Brady, Reed
SF: McMorris, Releford, Little
PF: Kieffer, McMorris, T-Rob
C: T-Rob, Withey, etc.
That’s a top-5 team even if X leaves and we don’t get Selby or Knight (or Doron Lamb).
Operation Final Four is a go. Proceed to target.
totally forgot about Releford and Little
Let me amend:
Selby → EJ
Taylor → CJ → Reed
Little → Morningstar →Releford
McMorris → MkMorris
Robinson → Withey
And we could easily run a 3-guard lineup with Selby, Taylor and Johnson that would be the fastest in college basketball.
Hell, even if we don’t sign Selby, this team will be VERY good.
Oh yeah
nobody (outside of KU fans) realizes that we’ll be almost as good next year as we are this year.
Beadlemaniacs - Award winning* college basketball blog (new and improved!)
Olympics!
I know, it's ridiculous
If the stars line up, we could definitely win the tournament in consecutive years.
speed, speed, speed
Taylor and Johnson in the backcourt at the same time, and with both of them being able to fairly easily dunk, and with Little and Releford, who can both elevate and love playing in the paint (unlike X, who just doesn’t seem to want to bang), I could see a lot more alley oops. That’s one of the things I miss from the 07-08 team, when it seemed like almost every other possession was Rush or Shady elevating from out of nowhere to throw one down.
After this season...
I’m becoming a big proponent of speed at the guard spot. It’s given us trouble and I’d like to see us give other teams fits with EJ and Taylor next season.
53 Conference Championships!! and now 6 IN A ROW!!! Holy Hell...Good Luck with That!!
agreed
And I totally forgot about Woolridge. Although, if we get Selby, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him redshirt his freshman year.
I'd guess after the EJ experience...
Self might look harder at redshirts with freshman on the fringe.
53 Conference Championships!! and now 6 IN A ROW!!! Holy Hell...Good Luck with That!!
He will be making his decision April 17.
"Not to be cliché or anything, but I’m Jayhawk born and Jayhawk bred and when I die I’ll be Jayhawk dead." - Ovechwin
by Andy Edwards on Mar 13, 2010 11:52 AM CST up reply actions
In other news
we should take more threes. We’re 4th in the country in 3 point percentage, but 216th in number of threes we take. Obviously it stands to reason that our percentage would go down the more threes we take, but taking more threes seems like a sound strategy.
Beadlemaniacs - Award winning* college basketball blog (new and improved!)
Olympics!
Great writeup by Katz on the game
http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/6569/big-12-gets-its-dream-matchup
I’m going to fanshot this, but Katz has been doing a great job on the Tournament.
thanks for the heads up...
this really is a great matchup for the Big 12, huge for K-State and as a Kansas fan you have to welcome the challenge.
53 Conference Championships!! and now 6 IN A ROW!!! Holy Hell...Good Luck with That!!
OGT going up at either 11 or 12...can't remember...
but this Conference USA championship is pretty entertaining right now.
53 Conference Championships!! and now 6 IN A ROW!!! Holy Hell...Good Luck with That!!
ok ok ok...so remember...
after the first game when folks were coming up with other meanings for EMAW?
Well, someone on the Missouri board came up with one that I saw in a thread and I had to share.
……Ewes Make Awesome Wives
Now, I want to make it clear that this is not of my own making, because we will inevitably see some Cat fans here today and I don’t want any hard feelings. Still, you have to admit…that’s funny.
53 Conference Championships!! and now 6 IN A ROW!!! Holy Hell...Good Luck with That!!
Every Mildcat a Wannabe
kinda describes their mindset, no?
"Not to be cliché or anything, but I’m Jayhawk born and Jayhawk bred and when I die I’ll be Jayhawk dead." - Ovechwin
by Andy Edwards on Mar 13, 2010 11:59 AM CST up reply actions
Way to distance yourself from the insult Denver.
I'm sure KSU fans will be understanding.
by hunter s. royal on Mar 13, 2010 2:03 PM CST up reply actions
Should be a classic
He’s always open. He catches a lot of balls. He’s un-guardable, no matter how old he is
Everlasting-Mojo-Angers-Wildcats
they know they can’t do it like us.. thats why they spray paint that crap all over billboards.. EMAW sounds like a noise a farm animal makes
X is gonna give to ya!
Gonna be a great game, last 2 have kept me on the edge of my seat! Get ready for highlights at http://www.xavierhenry.com

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